A high school women’s group rescued a hiker with a broken leg having trained for that exact situation.
It started when the students from the Armidale’s Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC) arrived at Warrumbungle National Park for a 4-day hike.
On day 3, they came across Thomas Wendland, a hiker who had broken his leg. Startled but excited, since they had prepared for this very scenario as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award project, the students conferred with their leaders and then sprang into action.
Using tarp poles and a hammock, they created a gurney for Wendland to wriggle on to.
Then, 11th grader Stephanie Blake said, the team would count to 3 and hoist up the gurney which they would carry along the trail for 60 seconds. They’d put him down, rotate sides, take some deep breaths, and do another 60 seconds.
They continued like this for 2 hours until they could get Wendland to a location where medical teams could reach him.
“The path just seemed to keep getting longer and longer,” Stephanie said. “You don’t realize how far [2.1 miles] is until you’re shuffling along carrying someone.”
Wendland is an experienced hiker, but said that he slipped and heard something snap that day. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened, only that something wasn’t right. It was a second fall that saw the pain really start.
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“I felt quite useless while they got it all set up” Wendland told ABC News Australia. “It absolutely means the world that they were able to offer the assistance they did. I’m forever grateful for them.”
ABC wrote that the Duke of Edinburgh Award is a non-formal education program for young people that focuses on physical recreation, outdoor skills, voluntary service and “adventurous journey.”
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Program organizers for the PLC, Amanda and Marty Burney, said that they had practiced the makeshift gurney strategy before, and that the students were excited and focused when they realized they’d be able to use it to help rescue someone for real.
Though the exertion was far more than what they’d imagined, Blake said to have that trick up their sleeve, and to have practiced it, provided “such a good sense of achievement.”
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